Sunday, October 9, 2011

SCG Samut Songkhram 1-1 Sriracha

It was honours even in the relegation encounter between Samut Songkhram and Sriracha as they cancelled each other out in a 1-1 draw.

Usually I only report on Bangkok teams, but as there was no football in the capital this weekend, I decided to make the relatively short trip to Samut Songkhram.

Within 6 minutes, Samut Songkhram were ahead through ex Heart of Midlothian striker, Chistian Nade. A low corner from the right was swept in by Nade as he netted his first goal in SCG colours.

Goal!!

His strike partner, Bireme Diuof was lively early on, and he nearly doubled the home side's lead as his shot crashed down of the crossbar onto the line.

If Diouf's strike had gone in it could have been a different game. However, on 25 minutes, Sriracha were level when a spot kick was awarded for a foul on Dudu. From the angle where I saw the foul, it looked soft, but Christiano Lopes wasn't complaining as he stroked the penalty home.

TPL Standard?

That was it as far as the scoring went. The second half didn't produce many chances. Samut Songkhram had possibly more of the play, although Sriracha rallied late in search of 3 points.

1-1 was a fair reflection on the game. After the final whistle about 50 Samut Songkram fans stood outside the players entrance to vent their anger at the referee. I'm not sure what the man in the middle did to antagonise the home faithful, but chants of "gamagan hia" pretty much summed up that they weren't pleased with his officiating.

On current form, I'd be very surprised if both of these teams are in the TPL next season. Both have decent defences which might be enough for one of them to survive the drop. Samut Songkhram only have 3 home games left out of their remaining 9 fixtures, while Sriracha still have to face "the big 3" in their last 9.